Jalen Hurts’ breakout earns Eagles a reprieve from NFL draft’s quarterback roulette

Hurts and the Eagles can sit back and watch the draft's mad scramble for quarterbacks. What a difference a year makes.

Jalen Hurts finished second in MVP voting for his breakout 2023 season.Read moreYong Kim / Staff Photographer

Published Mar. 13, 2023, 5:00 a.m. ET

Sometimes, the best plans are the ones you don’t end up needing. The remarkable thing about where the Eagles are now is where they were a year ago. It’s a place that’s worth revisiting in the wake of the Carolina Panthers’ recent move up the draft board to secure the top overall pick in a trade with the Chicago Bears.

Days before the move, new Panthers coach Frank Reich spoke publicly of his desire to draft a young franchise quarterback and avoid recreating the quarterback hospice program that got him fired from the Indianapolis Colts. He is now in position to do exactly that. All it cost Carolina was two first-round picks, two seconds and a No. 1 wide receiver.

It’s an interesting move from the Eagles’ perspective because it is one that they themselves could have made. Think back to last offseason, when Howie Roseman swindled the New Orleans Saints in an early April trade by swapping a 2022 first-rounder for a 2023 first-rounder while picking up a second-rounder in the process. At the time, Roseman’s decision to essentially defer a first-round pick for a year was interpreted as a preemptive move to position the Eagles for a future move up the draft board like the one the Panthers just made. As it turns out, the pick they acquired from the Saints ended up landing at No. 10, one spot behind the pick Carolina used to trade up with the Bears.

Needless to say, the Eagles did not involve themselves in the bidding. What matters is that they could have. Also, that they didn’t need to.

It’s worth considering if those two realities are related, especially given the circular conveyor belt of doom that so many other NFL teams are riding at the quarterback position. Take Reich, for instance. In one of history’s more unfortunate cases of timing, his first season as an NFL head coach happened to be Andrew Luck’s last as an NFL quarterback. Over the next three years, the Colts lived life at the quarterback position like Vin Diesel in Fast & Furious: one quarter-mile at a time. First came Jacoby Brissett and Brian Hoyer. Then came Philip Rivers, Carson Wentz, and Matt Ryan. Then came the bottom.

To a certain extent, Act 3 was inevitable the day the Colts decided to trade a first-round pick for Wentz. But only to a certain extent. After all, the primary difference between the Eagles and the Colts is that the Eagles drafted Hurts at No. 46 in 2020 and the Colts did not. Indy had two second-round picks that year, but used them on wide receiver Michael Pittman (No. 34) and running back Jonathan Taylor (No. 41). That happened before Wentz.

Maybe it was a matter of chance. The Eagles took a flier on a guy and it ended up working out. Maybe it was a matter of scouting. They saw something in Hurts that nobody else did. Probably, it was a combination of both of those things. But there’s a third element here that’s worth shouting out. The Eagles’ macro-level approach to the quarterback position maximized their odds of being both lucky and right.

Dating back to the Andy Reid and Joe Banner era, the Eagles’ history at quarterback has been one of diversification. They drafted Kevin Kolb when they had Donovan McNabb. They signed Michael Vick when they had both. They drafted Nick Foles when they had Vick. They signed Mark Sanchez when they had Vick. They traded Foles for Sam Bradford and then traded Bradford and re-signed Foles after they traded up for Wentz.

Roseman once used the word “quarterback factory” when describing his aspirations. It was a clunky way to describe what was a noble guiding principle: If you aren’t constantly looking for the next guy, you are liable to end up without any. Then, you are liable to panic.

Which brings us back to the Panthers. Like the Colts, they have spent the last few years throwing annual Hail Marys, from Teddy Bridgewater to Sam Darnold to Baker Mayfield. Now, they’ll at least get a guy who earns Reich a two- or three-year grace period.

There is no sure thing in 2023. Florida’s Anthony Richardson and Kentucky’s Will Levis are both worth the gamble. Alabama’s Bryce Young and Ohio State’s C.J. Stroud will be swallowed by the NFL.

Next year is the year to target if you are looking for The One. USC’s Caleb Williams and North Carolina’s Drake Maye are both at a level that warrants thinking a few years into the future. Don’t be surprised if the legacy of the Panthers’ trade is who it positioned the Bears to draft in 2024.

There are three types of quarterbacks in the NFL: those you will win with, those you won’t win with, and those you can win with. The Eagles’ strength has been recognizing the types of quarterbacks who fall into that third category while moving aggressively when they see one who could potentially end up in the first.